The Spiritual Servant - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 17
About This Presentation
Title:

The Spiritual Servant

Description:

Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I ... Man's love has its origin in God. God's love always comes first. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:255
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 18
Provided by: raafati
Category:
Tags: action | christ | images | jesus | john | love | man | men | of | on | persons | servant | spiritual | you

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Spiritual Servant


1
The Spiritual Servant
  • Orthodox Spirituality

2
  • Spirituality in the Orthodox Church means the
    everyday activity of life in communion with God.
    The term spirituality refers not merely to the
    activity of man's spirit alone, his mind, heart
    and soul, but it refers as well to the whole of
    man's life as inspired and guided by the Spirit
    of God.
  • This means that all that a person thinks, says
    and does must be inspired and guided by the Holy
    Spirit so that the will of God the Father might
    be accomplished as revealed and taught by Jesus
    Christ the Son of God.

3
  • ... whatever you do, do all to the glory of God
    (1 Cor 1031).
  • Doing all things to the glory of God is the
    meaning and substance of life for a human being.
    This "doing" is what Christian spirituality is
    about.

4
God The Father
  • Christian spirituality is centred in God its
    very goal is communion with God, which is
    attainable through the accomplishment of His
    will.
  • To be what God wants us to be and to do what God
    want us to do is the sole meaning of our human
    existence.
  • In the Old Testament law, it is written I am the
    Lord your God consecrate yourselves therefore,
    and be holy, for I am holy (Lev 1144).

5
  • In the New Testament, the first letter of Saint
    Peter refers to this fundamental command of' God.
  • ... as He who called you is holy, be holy
    yourself in all your conduct since it is
    written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy
  • (1 Pet 116).
  • All are "called to be saints" (Rom 17)
  • "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your
    heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 548).

6
  • The teaching that man must be holy and perfect
    like God Himself through the accomplishment of
    the will of God is the central teaching of the
    Orthodox Christian faith.
  • "Man is called to become by divine grace all that
    God Himself is by nature."
  • As God is holy, man must be holy. As God is
    perfect, man must be perfect, pure, merciful,
    patient, kind, gentle, free, self-determining,
    ever-existing.

7
Jesus Christ
  • Christian spirituality is centred in Christ.
    Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God who was
    born as a man of the Virgin Mary in order to give
    man eternal life in communion with God His
    Father.
  • The goal of human life is to be continually "in
    Christ." When one is "in Christ," according to St
    John, one does God's will and cannot sin.

8
  • away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who
    abides in Him sins no one who sins has either
    seen Him or knows Him. ... he who does right is
    righteous, as He is righteous. ... No one born of
    God commits sin for God's nature abides in him,
    and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By
    this it may be seen who are the children of God,
    and who are the children of the devil whoever
    does not do right is not of God, nor he who does
    not love his brother (1 Jn 34-10).
  • Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me
    will also do the works that I do and greater
    works than these will he do, because I go to the
    Father (Jn 1412).

9
The Holy Spirit
  • Spiritual life is life in and by the Holy Spirit
    of God.
  • If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will
    pray the Father, and He will give you another
    Comforter to be with you forever. The Spirit of
    Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
    neither sees Him nor knows Him but you know Him,
    for He dwells with you and will be in you (Jn
    1415-17).

10
  • But you have been anointed by the Holy One and
    you know all things ... and the unction chrisma
    you have received from Him abides in you ... His
    anointing teaches you about everything and is
    true and is no lie, just as it has taught you,
    abide in Him. ... And by this we know that He
    abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given
    us. ... By this we know that we abide in Him
    and He in us, because He has given us of His own
    Spirit (1 Jn 220-27, 324, 413).

11
  • been given to us. ... Any one who does not have
    the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. But if
    Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead
    because of sin, your spirits are alive because of
    righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised
    Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
    Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your
    mortal bodies also through His Spirit which
    dwells in you ... for if you live according to
    the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you
    put to death the deeds of the body, you will
    live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God
    are sons of God (Rom 55, 81ff cf. 1 Cor 2, 6,
    12-14 Gal 5).

12
MAN
  • Man, according to the scriptures, is created "in
    the likeness of God" (Gen 126-27).
  • To be like God, through the gift of God, is the
    essence of man's being and life.
  • In the scriptures it says that God breathed into
    man, the "breath or spirit of life" (Gen 27).

13
  • For man to fulfil himself as created in the image
    and likeness of God -- that is, to be like Christ
    who is the perfect. divine, and uncreated Image
    of God -- man must be the temple of God's Spirit.
  • The Orthodox spiritual tradition interprets the
    "two ways" of the Mosaic law
  • I call heaven and earth to witness against you
    this day, that I have set before you life and
    death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life
    that you and your descendants may live, loving
    the Lord, obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,
    for that means life to you (Dt 3019-20).

14
  • For I delight in the law of God in my inmost
    self, but I see in my members another law at war
    with the law of my mind and making me captive to
    the law of sin which dwells in my members. ...
    For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
    has set me free from the law of sin and death.
    ... For those who live according to the flesh
    set their minds on the things of the flesh, hut
    those who live according to the Spirit set their
    minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the
    mind on the Spirit is life and peace (Rom
    714-817).
  • Christian spiritual life depends on the conscious
    choice of the "way of life." To "choose life" and
    to walk in the "way of life" is the way that man
    shows himself to be in the image and likeness of
    God.

15
GOD is LOVE
  • According to the Christian faith "the greatest
    virtue is love" (I Corinthians 1313) Love is the
    "fulfilling of the law" of God. (Romans 1310)
    For God Himself is Love.
  • Beloved, let us love one another for love is of
    God, and he who loves is born of God and knows
    God.
  • He who does not love does not know God for God
    is love.

16
  • Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to
    love one another. No man has ever seen God if we
    love one another, God abides in us and His love
    is perfected in us.
  • We love, because He first loved us. (I John
    47-19)
  • Man's love has its origin in God. God's love
    always comes first. Men are to love God and one
    another because God Himself has loved first.

17
  • The first definition of love as agape is love as
    the action of perfect goodness for the sake of
    the other. This is the most basic meaning of
    love to do everything possible for the
    well-being of others. God Himself has this love
    as the very content of His being and life, for
    "God is agape." It is with this love that
    spiritual persons must love first of all.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com